Wednesday, September 29, 2010

On the first day of raya, I only managed to bake one cake. One. A total disapoinment. I know I could have baked more if I can managed my time efficiently. But I had a lot of cleaning ups to do. I was working half-day that day. And I really wanted to go home before iftar. Even if its mean I had to breakfasting in the car. Which I did. And Mom was the one who called me all the way from JB to tell me 'dalam TV dah azan so you can buka puasa now'.

I had few blocks of cream cheese so I thought of making a cheesecake (and left few blocks in the fridge which in a real bad condition when I get back after raya due to fridge rosak :( ). I think this recipe I copied from Kuali or something. I forgot. You can google it if you want.

Yes I know my cheesecake turned out not as beautiful as they should be. I brought back to JB rightaway, still hot and warm when I arrived. So I had to left the inner lining of baking paper on the side of the cake. Takut deformity berlaku. Hehe.

And the cake? Biasa-biasa je lah. Its either me or the recipe. I think it was me haha.

Shortcrust pastry:

200g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

125g very cold butter

3 tbsp ice-cold water

Filling:

300g cream cheese(leave at room temperature)

2 eggs, separated

75g castor sugar

1 tbsp grated orange rind

2 tbsp orange juice

1 1/2 tbsp corn flour

175g canned peaches

MethodSift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Dip the whole piece of butter into the flour. Place a grater above the flour, take the butter out and grate it into the flour. Mix grated butter into the flour. Rub in using your fingertips until butter is well distributed and the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Do not overwork the mixture.

Add ice-cold water gradually, stirring the flour and butter mixture with a palette knife. When mixture starts to bind well, stop adding water.

Knead the pastry lightly for a short while until smooth. Wrap pastry with plastic food wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Roll out pastry between two sheets of plastic wrap. Peel top layer of plastic from pastry. Roll pastry round a rolling pin. Bring rolling pin over a 21 cm flan tin.ease pastry carefully into the tin. Trim edges.

Prick the base with a fork and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Bake blind in preheated oven at 190°C for 10 minutes then remove beans and paper and bake for a further 20 minutes or until lightly browned. *cough* FYI saya pakai green beans :p

To make filling: Preheat oven to 180°C. Drain peaches well then slice thinly. Arrange slices evenly over the base of baked pastry case.

Beat cheese until light then add in sugar and continue to beat until creamy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each one is added. Stir in orange juice and rind. Sift in corn flour and blend well.

Carefully pour filling over the peaches. Bake in preheated oven for one to one and a quarter hours or until cake is firm. Leave cake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes with oven door ajar. Remove the pie and cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate cake overnight then turn out. Sift icing sugar over and slice into eight pieces and serve.

For the topping, I arranged the sliced peaches on top of the cake the next day, and strawberry then I pour instant jelly on top of it ;)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Again, bananas left ripen on the counter so I baked banana cake! I left the bare cake for a day before I made the filling and ganache. When I sent Lana to the airport, I managed to grab one bag of Daim from the store so I decided to chop it and toss(?) it on my ganache. The filling was a different story. I had all the ingredients on hand but I had no idea which recipe to be followed. I stood there then I sat. Then I decided to make something different. Rather than using all the creams I used, CUSTARD! Yes damn freaking custard powder! I didn't know where did the idea came from but I was pretty sure I had to make it fast.

Obe loved it. So much. He said that was the best cake I ever made. Which was a lie. I know I baked some pretty good stuff before. And it were all good! Hahaha. But seriously, I think if you have all the patience and rajin, spare some time and prepare a good filling. Seriously.

And I don't know why did I choose this recipe although the original recipe was called for an upside down walnut cake. But yes, the cake was dense, moist and the best for a banana cake. Be experimental and try adding some fun to it ;)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Sift first 4 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then mashed bananas, sour cream, rum, and vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions just until combined. Spoon batter into pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

For the filling, I don't exactly remember the measurement of all the ingredients. Its in my head naturally, abundance and engraved on one of my lobes I guess. But I won't let you down. Saya cuba.

1/2 tin susu cair IDEAL3 full tbsp custard powder

Boil the milk together with the custard powder until dissolve on a low heat. When it starts to boil, continue stir until it thickens. Turn off the heat and spread on the cooled cake (after you cut it to layers of course ;) ).

For the ganache, erm ini memang aku tak ingat. My own recipe and techniques differ from time to time :p

Twist apart 24 Oreos. Place the wafer with filling on it, filling side up, in the bottom of each paper liner. Cut other wafers in half. Save 24 halves to place in the frosting. Crush the other wafer halves, also for garnishing.

Cut the remaining Oreo cookies into quarters with a sharp knife. Toss with 2 Tbsp flour and set aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in sugar. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites. Beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in the quartered cookies.

Fill the cupcake lines three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees (or somewhere no more than 170 degrees celcius).

Start by mashing all the prunes. You don't have to soaked the prunes in water but if you find it is not squishy enough then add some. Set aside.

Sift together flour, cinnamon powder and baking soda. In a bigger bowl, mix together oil, sugar and eggs and beat well. Stir in the dry ingredients and add in buttermilk, vanilla essence and prunes. As what Ree said, do not overmix!

5 minutes before the cake is done, start preparing the icing. Mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan and heat it for 5 to 7 minutes. Do not stir. It will start to bubbles then turn off the heat when the sugar has reach to almost caramel-consistency but make sure it is not too thick. Immediately pour on top of your cake.

I baked like what most of you did. I am no baking goddess. Sometimes I do forgot to put eggs on the batter. Yes I did, once :p And there were many times where I *cough* accidentally overbeat my batter and you know how my heart sinks just like how the cake sinks in? The feeling, my God nak menangis.

I am not perfect. I am still learning. But I am not that virgin with a whisker, or a spatula.

Like last week, I baked this. You know how did it turn out? Half of it were ok and half of it hampeh. I don't know what went wrong but maybe it was the temperature. Halfway through the baking, I raised the temperature a bit only then it is ok. And I ate all alone. Tsk tsk.

My temptation in baking the perfect cupcakes did not end there. The next few days I baked a simple raspberry vanilla cupcakes from one of the recipe book I have and tralalala, I threw away all of it. Don't ask why memang sangat remuk hati luluh lah.

In between of those two I baked this. Awesome powsome! I liked it! Butter cake texture with suji flavour. But I must remind you, suji flour might be too coarse for your liking. I don't mind it at all. Of course I was a bit disturbed with the sandy feeling of the cake at first but take some time to let it melts itself in your mouth *drools*.

Of course, Shaleen and baking cannot be separated even when the mixer is broken :p Last Friday I took out the last block of butter from the fridge and the last four eggs and start counting. 4 eggs, what can I bake with four? I searched for a recipe from my hard drive then I stumbled upon this one recipe, Orange Almond Cake. Great! I have some oranges left in the fridge.

When I came home from work, I start to measuring everything. But the ingredients were in fecking grams! Mana pulak aku nak carik scale nih. Then luckily, from years of baking with a lot of failures, I can just close one eye and measure everything. Haha.

Working with lack of utensils is another things. I don't even have orange squeezer. Five minutes later, with splashes of juice everywhere...

I was sweeping the house and the house filled with sweet citrus aroma and I loveeeeeeeeeee it! Brought it home to JB when it was still hot but only to realized they don't really fancy orange cake :(

I'd always amused by how the combination of butter and sugar become white and fluffy. I'd always mesmerized by the beauty of a well rise cake. I don't know when it start but I know I got it from my mom, our own baker.

Day by day I found that I always fell for beautiful cake/cupcakes. I searched for the best recipes relentlessly. Contrary with the time I have for all my baking projects. The minute I stumbled upon the perfect recipe, my hands would get very itchy and I started to conquered the whole kitchen.

My cakes/cupcakes were all good. Well, that was what people said. And yes, because of my almost perfect taste buds on all these to die for dessert, I know how to define a good and superb cake ;)

Enough said. I thought I should give something to my friends back in SWA**** at where I worked as a dancer before I quit. All my baking utensils were in JB so I just bought the very basic thing.

I browsed through Martha Stewart's and found this. I just had to try! Good, a perfect reason for baking!

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

I made two batches. The first one I frosted it with the usual vanilla buttercream frosting and the other one I frosted with Oreo Buttercream. Sumpah sedap! All I did was crushed the cookies and mix it in.

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. In a large bowl sift together the flour, salt and cocoa powder. In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and beat until just combined.

Whisk buttermilk with red colour and pour the flour mixture and buttermilk into the wet ingredients alternately starting and ending with buttermilk using a low speed mixer.

In a small cup combine vinegar and baking soda and allow the mixture to fizz before quickly fold in to the batter.

Divide the batter to cupcakes and bake for20-25 minutes.

You can use any cream cheese frosting that you like. Saya malas nak type lagi :p

Sifted together the flour and baking powder. In another bowl beat together the butter and cream cheese. Mix in the sugar and vanilla essence and beat until white and fluffy.

Beat in eggs adding one at a time until combine. With mixer in low speed, pour in the flour gradually until finish. Mix the fruits with the remaining flour and slowly fold into the batter until combine.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until tester inserted to the cake comes out clean.

Found this recipe from Baking Obesession my heart straight away said have to bake this! Have to!

But the cake (the one that I baked actually pfft!) was very messy! No way I can serve the guests like that but still I cut and put it in a plate nicely anyway ;) And its gone in a minute! It is at it best when its warm, seriously. When you can feel the cheese melts, speechless.

Here are some tips that might be useful;

the apple filling might be a little bit watery. Do not pour together the fluid onto the batter if you can. I'd few drops like terjatuh and it spilled from the pan (I use a loose bottom) and buat satu dapur panik bau hangus.

make sure you cover the top of the cake with streusel thick enough so the batter won't suck up all your streusel. Aku punya dah macam volcano cis.

you can get buttermilk by mixing half cup of milk with 2 tbsp of white vinegar.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt in a medium bowl. Add the butter cubes and use your finger and start crumbling them (better if you have a pastry blender). Mix in the cheese and refrigerate until use.

Filling:

Melt the butter oer a medium heat. Add the brown sugar and cook for 1 minute. Add in the apples and make sure the sugar cover it completely and continue heating until it become glaze-like sauce. Remember to continue stirring. It is easy for your filling to get burn okeh. Remove from the heat and miz in the cheddar.

Batter:

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small cup, combine the buttermilk with vanilla and set aside. In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk beginning and ending with flour in three batches.

Transfer about half of the batter into the pan. Arrange the filling on top of it make sure that the filling fills the centre part of the cake without touching the edge of the cake. Pour in the other half on top of it and cover it nicely. Sprinkle the streusel topping.

Bake the cake at 170 degrees for 45mins - 1hr 15mins depending on the type of pan you use and the oven. Or until wooden skewer comes out clean.I would try again baking this cake just because I have some cheddar's leftovers ;)

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Make brownie batter: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. Heat butter and chocolate in a 3-quart heavy saucepan — though I did mine double-boiler style, placing the mixing bowl I was using over simmering water, thereby creating one less dirty dish and melting the chocolate more gently — over moderately low heat, whisking occasionally, just until melted. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and a pinch of salt until well combined. Whisk in flour until just combined and spread in baking pan.

Make cheesecake batter: Whisk together cheesecake batter ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Dollop over brownie batter, then swirl in with a knife or spatula.

Bake brownies: Bake until edges are slightly puffed and center is just set, about 35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Combine the chocolate and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. As the mixture begin to melt add cream slowly then reduce heat to low, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and cool.

Combined the remaining butter and sugar, mix with a wooden spoon then beat until light and fluffy. Add melted choc and spoon icing onto cupcakes. Place coconut onto a small plate and roll each cupcake on it to coat the icing.

Whisk together brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and mashed banana in a medium sized bowl. Add the melted butter to the brown sugar mixture and stir to combined.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gently fold in the berries and make sure they are fully coated with the flour. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are just combined.

Fill batter to each of the muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Note: This is my favourite. And also Obe's and family. And also few of my friends. I baked this many times and it always yummy! I used strawberry extract instead of the real one pasal berries mahal okay. Hahahaha. Oh, few tips;

Chocolate cupcakes: In a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the water, vinegar, oil and vanilla extract. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until nice and smooth. Evenly divide the batter to 12 muffins cups.

Then spoon a few tablespoons of cream cheese filling to the centre of each cupcake.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the cream cheese filling is a little bit brown and the cupcakes feel springy to touch.

ps: no picture. maybe I'll bake some and upload it. but later. hurm or not.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

It is time. This blog has been here for so long and finally I can make use of it. After much procrastination, when blogger revealed to me the new design template where you can easily customize everything with some cool graphic, I rolled up my sleeves and decided it is time to get serious with this. I mean, I don't want to spam my own personal blog anymore. Haha.

This blog was first made to help me sorting out all orders for my famous cookies (boleh? haha). But then I'd became lazy and more lazy and more lazy and I left it there, collecting dust.

Anyway, time to time you would surely be reading all of my baking posts from my blog. Those recipes should be somewhere I assumed. You can click whatever labels you want, I have sort it out everything for you. Don't I love you that much already? Hehe. At the moment I don't sell my cakes/cupcakes but you can inquire if you want. I would be more than happy to bake for someone who enjoys it ;)

The cookies sale are ongoing all year around! Buy it for any occasions or if you just feels like eating something to fat urself up, then do drop your order through email. We're going old school here, I don't have any forms or whatever because I don't think my email would get hectic with the orders. I mean, I rarely get order. Ok I don't know what I am trying to say here.